Teenage girl ‘facilitated’ and filmed gang attack shared on Snapchat
Tom Tuite
A teenage girl “facilitated” and filmed a gang attack on a youth in Dublin, which was shared on social media app Snapchat, a court heard.
The troubled teen later attacked a concerned woman who tried to help another girl getting sick on the side of a road.
She pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children’s Court to two counts of assault causing harm to the victims during the incidents in February and May last year when she was aged 17. She will be sentenced next year.
She had no prior convictions and had stayed out of trouble since.
On Wednesday, Judge Paul Kelly noted her remorse and how she had gone from missing school, abusing drugs and associating with a negative peer group to achieving good Leaving Certificate results and a college place offer.
During the first incident, in north Dublin, the teenager “facilitated” an attack on a male youth but did not take an active part in the beating. However, “she filmed the assault,” which was later uploaded to Snapchat.
A male co-defendant has already been sentenced to community service for his role in the attack.
The second incident happened in Baldoyle when a passing motorist noticed a teenage girl with a group.
The woman, a mother who has a daughter of her own, grew worried after seeing the teen getting sick and went to check if the girl was okay. However, a verbal altercation ensued, and she was attacked by the defendant and another girl.
The court heard she was “kicked and punched” to her body, neck and face and suffered bruising and a broken nose.
The judge was told that the defendant’s accomplice was responsible for most of the injuries, which included “scratches” from her nails.
The defence said the defendant got involved in the assault because she was helping her friend.
'Ashamed'
Pleading for leniency, defence counsel Amy Hughes said the defendant, now 18, was ashamed and remorseful but had made significant changes in her life and “addressed a lot of issues”.
The court heard how she became involved in daily substance abuse, starting with ecstasy tablets, and she had suffered personal trauma.
But she has engaged with the Probation Service, a drug addiction treatment programme and a bail supervision scheme, all of which “wrote glowingly” about her in reports handed into court.
The teen told the court that reading the victim’s impact statements was “heartbreaking to see them write out how bad a person I used to be”.
She also offered €500 to each victim as a gesture of remorse.
Judge Kelly ordered her to continue attending counselling and further supervision from the Probation Service.
The defence barrister has pleaded with him to consider leaving her client without a criminal record.
Judge Kelly said he would consider the application if there were favourable updated reports and no further trouble from the teen who was accompanied to court by her parents. The case resumes in May.
